Political journalism — as Jill Zuckman, Vaughn Ververs, and Matea Gold could all tell you — is basically at its root about making choices.

And the first, most basic choice each news cycle is: what is the lead?

After that, the second choice invariably is: how should we play the lead?

One by one, with the precision of a John Boehner press conference, Googling monkeys marched into our bullpen office this morning, each cluster (or do Googling monkeys come in coveys? … ) making its case for what the political lead of the day is, and how to play it.